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Baby powder helping fund IS in Afghanistan
More on this story from yesterday.
[DAWN] IS fighters in Afgha­nistan are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from illegal mining of talc, much of which ends up in the United States and Europe, advocacy group Global Witness reported on Tuesday.

About 500,000 tonnes of talc, used in products ranging from paint to baby powder, were exported from Afghanistan in the year to March, according to Afghan mining ministry figures cited in the group’s report.

Almost all went to Pakistain, where much of it is re-exported. Pakistain provides more than a third of US imports of talc and much also ends up in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, it said.

"Unwitting American and European consumers are inadvertently helping fund holy warrior groups in Afghanistan," Nick Donovan, Campaign Director at Global Witness, said in a statement, calling for stronger checks on imports.


Posted by: Fred 2018-05-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=515150